


boys will be bugs

by Masterofkarate



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: (very minorly), Alcohol, Dysphoria, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking, also don't follow charlie's binder wearing habits. not healthy, anyway charlie is trans that's canon idc, anyway none of these tags are relevant, but you get this instead, charlie makes friends with a worm and gets muddy, mac is a good friend sometimes and a bad friend others and that's p canon, mac loves den and charlie loves mac and charlie just accepts it, these boys are always settling :(, this definitely could be better if i actually spent time organizing my thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 19:48:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19184437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masterofkarate/pseuds/Masterofkarate
Summary: the party where Dennis goes down on Chrissy Orlando, but from Charlie's perspective.---the tags say more than the summary lmao.---also the title is the title of a song "Boys Will be Bugs" which is 100% a charlie kelly song.





	boys will be bugs

“I don’t want to go to Dooley’s stupid pool party,” Charlie said as he leaned back on his elbows on the rooftop, looking up at the dark, starless sky, passing the joint back to Mac.

“C’mon man, it’s gonna be cool. Den is inviting his friends too, it’s gonna be more than our usual-”

“Yeah, dude, I don’t like other people,” Charlie huffed, “Why can’t we just hang out, just us? Dennis’ other friends make him even shittier, and he calls me Dirt Grub when they’re around.”

“C’mon, Charlie, it’s just a joke,” Mac huffed, hogging the joint.

“It is not,” Charlie grumbled, reaching over to take the joint from Mac’s hand. “Plus a pool party, that’s lame,  _ everybody  _ does pool parties in the summer.”

“Oh, are you nervous about the pool, ‘cause-”

“No!” Charlie shouted too quickly, nervous enough for his joint to tumble out of his hand. 

“Shit Charlie,” Mac said, sitting up and leaning forward to try to grab the joint, which rolled off the roof. “Damn it! Let’s go inside!”  
“Fine, whatever,” Charlie answered, standing up to lead them inside.

Once inside, they both settled onto Charlie’s bed. After laying for a minute, Mac said, “Charlie, you gotta take off your-”

“No I don’t!” Charlie grumbled, twisting in the bed, tumbling the blankets. 

“You do, it’s gonna hurt if you keep it on all night.”

“I don’t want to take it off!” Charlie shouted.

“Hey man, it’s just me, I don’t care, for real,” Mac said.

Charlie stood up, the room was dark enough. He worked off his binder from under his t-shirt, which took longer than taking off his t-shirt, but he didn’t want to deal with it. He got back into bed and settled next to Mac, just far enough to not touch.

They fell asleep rather quickly. The next morning, Charlie still refused the idea of the pool party. And this continued until the next week until Mac showed up at Charlie’s house with a t-shirt of his that Charlie had borrowed a thousand times. It was a little too big for Charlie, but the sleeves were cut off, so it would be suitable for swimming. 

It being a little too big made the binder slightly visible on the sides, but Mac convinced him to wear it with his board shorts and join the party. And since Mac and Dooley were pretty cool, Charlie decided he could try it.

But then the booze came out and Dooley got the weird emotional drunk he always gets. And Mac refused to let Charlie smoke his weed because he wanted to sell it. And then some slightly more popular kids started showing up for the free booze. And then Dennis came fashionably late and refused to get in the pool, just sat with his feet in the pool, distracting Mac by complimenting him and then immediately turning his attention to the few girls that would talk to him. 

Charlie climbed out of the pool to get some food while Mac tried doing some stupid pool handstands for Dennis to watch. When he was over by the food stand, some asshole asked him about his binder, which with the wet fabric, was showing way more than he realized from the holes of his sleeves.

Instead of thinking of absolutely anything to say, Charlie shreaked in frustration and pushed the dude, then another guy he barely knew grabbed Charlie by the arms to pull him away, and Charlie ran. 

And that’s how he ended up under the foundation of the house. Charlie liked it under there. Quiet and dark and muddy, sort of like the sewers. He found a worm that he’d adopted as his temporary friend, letting it squirm from one hand to another. He didn’t realize how long he was under there until he heard Mac calling his name.

He noticed that there weren’t too many other sounds. A few people splashing in the pool, maybe. Quieter music. Gross couple noises. And Mac calling for him.

“Mac?” Charlie called, putting the worm down as he wiggled, very much like the worm, towards outside.

“Charlie?” he heard Mac call, stopping in his tracks.

“Mac?” Charlie called again, finally emerging from under the house.

“Dude, what the fuck?” Mac said in surprise.

“Hey man,” Charlie said as he stood up, wiping his hands on the thighs of his board shorts, which were damp mainly with mud at this point. 

“What the hell were you doing under there?”

“Oh you know,” Charlie answered with a shrug.

“Okay… well, I’m about to walk home. Wanna come?”

“Yeah, whatever. How was the party?” Charlie answered, following Mac’s stride as they headed towards the street.

“It was cool, I guess. Dennis did an awesome double-jack knife on the trampoline, he’s making out with Chrissy Orelando up there now.”

“Gross,” Charlie said, scrunching his face. 

“Why were you hiding?”

“I don’t know, the party was lame. You were all busy doing flips for Dennis and watching him do flips.”

“I wasn’t doing them for Dennis, I was-”

“Whatever, Mac. I just… I like… I needed you, dude, and you didn’t have my back, you never have my back anymore.”

“What do you mean you needed me?”  
“Some dude was all like, why are you wearing something under your shirt, and I freaked out, and you weren’t there, and I wanted to fight, but I didn’t want to cause a scene, so I just hid under the house.”

“Dude, I didn’t have your back ‘cause I didn’t even see it happen.”

“Yeah, because you’re obsessed with Dennis.”

“I’m not obsessed with Dennis, I just-”

“Whatever, Mac. I get it, it just sucks. You’re the one who made me come and then you-”

“Okay man, I’m sorry,” Mac huffed. “I didn’t mean to, you didn’t have to come, I was just trying to be a good friend.”

“Well it would’ve been cooler if you were actually a good friend at the party.”

“You’re right man, that was messed up, I should’ve had your back.”

“Thanks,” Charlie sighed, he let his hand hit Mac’s as they walked.

“Did seeing Dennis make out with Chrissy piss you off?”

“Why would it piss me off?” Mac asked quickly.

Charlie shrugged.

“A little bit,” Mac admitted, hand grabbing Charlie’s. 

“Yeah, man, I know the feeling.”

“It’s not-”

“I don’t care,” Charlie said. 

Mac pulled his hand away from Charlie’s.

“Are you mad?” Charlie asked.

“No man, your hands are just really muddy,” Mac said with a smile, holding his own hand up for Charlie to see the fresh mud print on it.

“It’s cool though,” Charlie laughed.

“Definitely not cool. You gotta shower.”

“Fine, can I shower at your place?”

“Yeah man, of course.” Mac smiled and added, “Hey, I saved one joint that I didn’t sell, prerolled for the walk home. Wanna spark it up?”

“Yeah, man, you do the honors,” Charlie said, cracking into a grin.

The two of them walked together, passing the joint back and forth until they got high enough that Mac held his hand without caring about the mud. Mac didn’t get high enough not to make Charlie shower before bed, though, but it was still nice. The pool party definitely sucked, and Mac sucked sometimes, but Mac didn’t suck right now, and that was enough. 

 


End file.
